I TRUST everyone had a good Raya Aidilfitri celebration earlier this week. There will be no game this weekend as the players are taking a break to enjoy the festivities and coming back next week.

There are no tournaments of note except the Annual Baram Trophy during the second weekend of Nov, and the Police Inter-Region Tournament later this month.

The other tournament being bandied about is the Curtin 10s, also scheduled for this month but to date, I still have no updates on this tournament.

The Baram Cup is definitely going ahead as the organisers, the Miri DRU, have already sent out invitations to local clubs and those from Brunei and also written to the Sarawak Rugby Union (SRU) for sanction.

I don’t have the details on the clubs that have been invited and have confirmed going for the tournament as everyone is still in Raya mood — so any further updates will only be available after this week.

The Inter-Region Tournament, organised by the Royal Malaysian Police, Sarawak contingent, is in the works as this article goes to press and I will be getting in touch with my sources in the police for more details.

When it was first mooted, the version for the tournament was the full 15s but later, I heard it might be changed to 10s but so far, this also has yet to confirmed.

It’s only about three weeks away between now and the end of Oct and I believe the police should be or are already tying up the loose ends of the format, and version of the game to be played. All the matches will be held at the Song Kheng Hai Ground in Kuching, the venerable home of rugby for as long as rugby has been played since it was organised here in the 50s.

This is not a new tournament as far as I know and it has been rotated between the Sarawak, and Sabah police contingents and their Brunei counterparts since it was initiated. But apparently for various reasons, the tournament was not played for a number of years until it was revived this year.

As mentioned in my last column, the Sarawak police have not been active in the game since the mid-90s with their last tournament being the SRU President’s Cup in ’97 and although they still have some players, none of them have turned up at the field during the weekends since.

In the days of yore, most of the police players would turn up for the weekly friendlies as they were also members of Club but after the last tournament in ’97, they have not been seen.

In those days, if not otherwise engaged in tournaments, the police players would compete under Club’s colours, notably in the Baram Cup in Miri. They had also represented the state, combining with Club’s players, and those from Sibu, in the Agung’s Cup when the best players from each of these club sides were selected.

I’m hoping the police side have got their squad sorted out for the Inter-Region Police Tournament, and will turn up for friendlies against Club in the coming weeks leading up to the tournament. This will serve both sides well as it will give the cops the chance to tune up and Club’s players to benchmark themselves against opponents who have the experience and who they have never played against before.

Then again, there’s the possibility the tournament might be postponed to a later date or scrapped altogether. Should the tournament go ahead, the SRU will be involved in the technical side like providing the match officials.

With three teams from host Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei and if the tournament is played on a league format, there will be three matches at least.

Aside from these tournaments, players in Kuching will be starved of matches except the weekly friendlies unless Club is aiming for the Baram Cup of which I have yet to get anything concrete.

I ran into Louis Simon Peter during Raya and he mentioned about the Louis Simon Peter Cup for Club members which has yet to be scheduled this year.

With things a bit slow due to the festivities, and Club president Dick B busy with his house renovation, I guess Club’s committee have yet to sit down and fix a date for this tournament, initiated to give Club’s players a chance to play competitive rugby at the end of the year to close out the season and at the suggestion of Louis who was club president two years ago before Dick took over the mantle, and who also sponsored the trophy.

He told me he would be in the shops to look for a trophy for the tournament. Originally, it was planned as a closed tournament for Club’s players who would form their own sides to play the 10s game but as the numbers were a bit on the low side, it was decided to play the 15s format instead with the magical figure 30 years (in age) being the defining factor of who plays for which side.

And so it came to pass and so far, it has been the over 30s who have had a monopoly on the tournament and trophy using their experience and guile to outwit the under 30s who have speed and youth on their side. The over 30s have paraded a number of geriatrics in their ranks but managed to come out on top so far.

In the French Top 14 matches last weekend, Bourgoin Jallien went down 25-32 to Stade Francais on Friday, and in Saturday’s matches, Montauban TG 15 edged Castres 24-23, Clermont Auvergne rolled over Biarritz Olympique 32-6, Stade Montois lost 16-22 to Montpellier RC, CA Brive thumped Dax 41-9, Toulouse defeated Perpignan 30-20, and Aviron Bayonnais won 19-15 against RC Toulon.

Standings after last week see Stade Francais still leading followed by Aviron Bayonnais, Toulouse, Montpellier RC, Perpignan, Clermont Auvergne, Montauban TG 15, RC Toulon, Biarritz Olympique, Dax, Bourgoin Jallien, CA Brive, Castres, and Stade Montois.

In the Guinness Premiership, Harlequins went down by one point (27-28) to London Irish on Saturday, and on Tuesday, Gloucester defeated Newcastle 39-23.

On Wednesday Bristol lost 16-23 to Saracens, London Irish rolled over Sale Sharks 28-6, Leicester Tigers defeated Northampton 29-19 and London Wasps lost to Bath Rugby 23-27.

Bath Rugby is leading the table followed by Leicester Tigers, Sale Sharks, Saracens, London Irish, Gloucester, Harlequins, Newcastle, Northampton, London Wasps, Worcester, and Bristol.

On Thursday, Worcester met Harlequins and then the league takes a break until Nov 14 as the All Blacks will be touring the Home Countries in Nov for tests and also against the British Lions.

Astro’s channel 814 has been carrying a number of these matches but usually quite late in the evenings, especially the Guinness Premiership matches.

A 12-a-side game was played last week for all those who turned up. And a guest present to watch the game was Doug from New Zealand. According to him, he grew up in Kuching when his father was working for SEDC.

He said he would be turning up to play and since the game will be taking a break this week, let’s hope he will show up next week.